stages of grief

Being a city girl I don’t often have the chance to experience the convenience that is the drive-thru. About 5 years back a nearby McDonald’s had a walk up window which I LOVED. Pushing a double stroller into a store, especially those stores that have a second set of doors is basically impossible. Plus, waiting in line at a fast food restaurant with this ginormous tandem double stroller is a nightmare. Please, of course I do it, but that walk up window really was a game changer for a while. Sadly it never seems to be staffed anymore. “My God” you must be thinking, “how much fast food do you eat that this is an issue?” I don’t eat it a lot, but I do need my fountain soda and I will battle a lunch crowd just for that large sparkling cup of goodness.

This weekend we took a trip out to Long Island. After an hour in the car, it was time for a soda. We pulled into a McDonald’s and got in the drive-thru line. There were about 3 cars in front of us, not too bad. Finally it was our turn, so my husband (who was driving) lowered the window and ordered me a large Diet Coke. Now first everyone needs to get over the fact that, YES, I did and have done before and will do again, wait on a drive-thru line JUST to get a soda. I admit to it and I own it. Now back to the story. Husband Dear orders and right after is when my good fortune turned. After thinking about it, the next minute or 2 played out exactly like the 5 stages of grief (please note that I am not dismissing real grief that people experience, I was just really surprised that what happened really did match!)

I hear some kind of garbled noise across the seat and my husband turns to me and tells me they are out of Diet Coke and would I like a Dr. Pepper?

Denial: “What? No? Ask them again?” Husband obliges and I hear the man tell him that there is no Diet Coke and the line is broken. Would I like something else? Unsweetened Iced Tea is close.

Anger: Are you kidding me – unsweetened iced tea is close – no it isn’t! Who told them to say that? Do they not know we’ve been in the car for an hour? That we waited in this line ONLY for a Diet Coke? Why the heck isn’t there a sign on the menu board alerting everyone to the fact that there’s no Diet Coke? What kind of operation are they running here? Ok- I didn’t say those things – I did leaned over my husband so that now I could be speaking directly to the voice box. “How are you out of Diet Coke?!” I yelled.

Bargaining: “Well is it going to be fixed soon? If we wait will it be running soon?” – No.

Depression: I sank back in my seat and we pulled out of the line. Husband offered to stop at the nearest place we saw. I told him not to bother. Whatever. It didn’t matter. I’m not gonna hold us up even longer by trying somewhere else. They probably won’t have Diet Coke either.

Acceptance: Thankfully my family always snaps me back. Kids were singing along to our Disney CDs, we only had a half hour left to our trip, I could manage. All would be ok – plus I’d have something to write about, right?

We had a great weekend, which included some awesome pumpkin picking. I’ll elaborate on all that another time soon. On our trip home, I didn’t want to chance it with that horrible McDonald’s, so we pulled into a Burger King after only 20 minutes on the road home. I know it’s ridiculous, but I was slightly worried…would they not have Diet Coke too?…or worse, would they hand it to me and it be AWFUL?!?! Thank the powers that be-Burger King did not disappoint. It wasn’t really a noteworthy soda, but it did the job and I would go there again. Phew, glad we ended out trip on a good soda note – thanks BK!